Minor Successes are Not the Stuff of Which History is Made

"Frankenstein" at 37 Arts, October 27, 2007

And the challenger, weighing in at 98 lbs, with a "faithful" adaptation of Mary Shelley's classic story.

He swings.

He misses.

He swings again - and knocks himself out. The crowd is in an uproar. They shout, "Throw in the towel! Throw in the towel!"

I agree.

Miscast, melodramatically staged, weakly scored, it's a sad event. There's really not enough here to provide fodder for campy remarks. Although those leather pants on the Creature...

Hunter Foster's Victor reminds me of Robert Preston. I kept waiting for him to break into "Trouble, Right Here In Geneva City."

Steve Blanchard's Creature is a hottie - until he sings. He has a nice vocal tone, but I can't tell what the source of his pitch problems are between the horrid sound design and the mediocre score.

Christiane Noll fares slightly better as Elizabeth - she gets to wear pretty costumes.

The abstract set by Kevin Judge is serviceable, but Thom Weaver's lighting design calls for 3.4 million instruments to light an off-Broadway venue. The result is blocked view for any audience member on the right side of the house. The worst of this offense is that the lighting was poor, even with all that money and equipment thrown at it. This is a brand new facility. Doesn't anyone designing theatre space ever think of the visual distraction caused by these huge life-threatening grids suspended over the audience? With that, why is it that lighting designers are the only ones on the technical team who doesn't have to mask his/her work? It's theatre, not a rock concert.

Ok, ok. I'll get off my soapbox now.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Back to Frankenstein (if I must).

They might do well to take out about 15-20 minutes and cut their intermission. That could reduce the empty seats in Act II. I mentioned this to my brother who attended with me (and who doesn't see a lot of theatre, btw). His response? "You can't polish a turd."

Well . . . ok!